This is when resilience – if you have it – can be a business-saving skill.

For those who struggle with resilience, what causes the problem?

Primarily, fear.

And it’s human nature.

No one wants to think about what might go wrong.

But putting your head in the sand is never a winning strategy, in any business, profession, or situation.

And denial only increases stress (and the mess, if it happens) instead of getting rid of it.

If you’d like to grow or improve your resilience, start with the following five ideas.

They may even save your business during challenging times:

1. Stretch your thinking.

You’ll be more prepared to respond to any unexpected situation if you consider what might go wrong, long before something happens.

Just by considering a wide range of possibilities, and mentally rehearsing what you, and the people you work with, would do to address these situations improves your ability to respond effectively.

You can “try on the future” with scenario analysis. In the simplest possible version, here’s how you do it:

Consider the best possible case, the worst possible case, and the most likely situation to arise

Stretch your thinking even further in each direction. Take into account an EVEN worse possible outcome, and an EVEN better possible outcome.

Now, having considered a wider range of possibilities, the “most likely” scenario is now likely to be different…and probably more accurate…than it was when you imagined the future as a simple extension of the past, or present.

2. Pay attention to critical details.

Track key indicators of possible change to improve your ability to predict what might happen, before it happens.

Look at it this way: you’re improving the crystal ball you use to predict what will happen in the future by virtue of being more aware of signs of changing circumstances.

To use examples in nature, animals, who are tuned in to very subtle signs in their environment are far better than humans are at predicting and being ready for some natural disasters when they occur.

Dogs and cats, for example, can often tell when an earthquake is going to happen, and they often start to act different.

Similarly, you can discover and track early warning signs of possible change in business.

To do so, start by identifying the highest risk aspects of your business.

Then brainstorm details or related trends that you could track to give you early warning about the very changes you worry about now.

Having advance notice about what may be happening as change occurs in its sometimes subtle early stages may enable you to take actions to prevent or minimize the impact of changes ahead, if very challenging things are starting to occur, or make the most of good situations, if they are starting to take shape.

3. Strengthen the processes and systems that must work.

Improve the core processes and systems of your business, if needed.

Make sure they are strong enough that your business could rely on them, if needed, to ride out an emergency for a while, should it occur (we who live in California think of being earthquake-ready, for example).

And if that emergency never occurs…and hopefully it won’t…you will benefit from faster, easier, more cost-effective processes for getting work done.

An immediate benefit is that improvements are almost guaranteed to lower your costs and improve your profits.

4. Create an emergency plan and resources for your business.

This one is easy to wave off, but it could save your business, and it could save lives, too.

Encourage your employees and friends of the business, such as your customers, suppliers, and colleagues, to make themselves emergency-ready, too.

Here are links to pages on the FEMA website that tell you how to create business and also family preparedness plans and then implement them:

The odds are that your efforts ahead of time will have beneficial effects, sooner and later, that are far beyond what you might expect…even if that rainy day never comes…and also, when an unexpectedly sunny one does.

As you develop this, or any leadership skill, you stretch the boundaries of your leadership comfort zone and proficiency.

If you’re ready to become a stronger leader, here are six ways to start:

1. Select a leader you admire and emulate his or her strengths

Keep this person in mind as a guide to emulate, learn about, and learn from as you experiment, build and refine your strength as a leader.

2. Get feedback on your leadership

Seek information about your strengths and areas for improvement from peers and direct reports, in addition to seeking and using your manager’s feedback.

The information, if honestly provided and viewed, may be eye-opening and humbling, in complimentary as well as instructive ways.

3. Know where you’re going

Create a vision to keep your attention, intention, and actions aligned with the long-term goals for your team.

In addition to creating a compelling vision, use simple but consistent and effective follow-up practices to keep you on track.

4. Listen and observe

You may or may not like what you hear and see when you check in to see how things are going, but you need to know what’s really going on.

Regular, honest assessment is essential to know how you and your team are really doing, and to be able to respond and adjust effectively to actual conditions, rather than what you hope to find.

5. Improve the ways you get your work done

Make your work life easier, and your results more predictable through effective process management.

Simplify and improve the processes, measures, feedback and follow-up practices you and your team use.

6. Build bench strength

This gives you greater capacity and adaptability, as a team.

It also extends your leadership reach and effectiveness. You can’t be everywhere, all the time, after all.

You’re more effective as a leader if you create processes, measurements, and good practices for your team to be able to self-monitor, self-manage and self-correct, as much as possible, in addition to seeking and using feedback you provide them.

A big part of your job as a leader is to create more, and better leaders, in your company.

The writer said how much easier problem-solving is when people don’t “switch sides.”

“‘Taking sides’ on problem-solving teams. Interesting…and ripe for many problems,” I thought.

The primary cause for teams that are split into “sides” is, in all likelihood, the fact that they do not have a real, driving purpose and clear goals to unify them.

If they did, opposing sides would be unlikely to crop up, or it would be hard for the different “sides” to be sustained within the team.

A team’s shared and overriding purpose for existing – if strongly held by all – can be powerful enough to drive them over, around, or through any barriers or adversarial inclinations that threaten to split them, and prevent them from reaching their goal.

It brought back recollections of another dilemma that dogs many problem-solving teams.

It’s the me vs. we conflictand it can also block team progress, completely.

Here’s just one example of the me vs. we malady:

A few years ago I was working with a client to lead a team of about 45 people through a full-company self-assessment and improvement process. The team was comprised of seven subteams, each one focused on a specific part of the assessment.

After the initial training and team launch, six of the subteams were clipping along, getting their work done well, and enjoying (yes…it is possible!) the challenging, invigorating assessment experience and process.

The seventh subteam, however, was lagging, and clearly dragging.

I listened closely in their status meetings, trying to size up what was blocking their progress, and how we could get them caught up, and working as well as the other teams.

I realized one person in the troubled team never used the word, “we” in any circumstance relating to their shared goals, or the team.

Her focus was always on “me,” “I,” and “mine.”

At a subteam meeting one day, I decided to learn more about her way of thinking to see if I could turn things around for her and her group.

“What would it take for you to use the word ‘we?’” I asked her at some point in the discussion.

She stopped suddenly, surprised, even dazed, in a way.

The question was very simple, yet the discussion it led to turned out to be extremely valuable to her, and to the team she was on.

She hadn’t realized how much her participation on the team was half-hearted, uncommitted, in name only. It was as if she were standing on the edge of a pool, dressed for competition as part of the team, but she’d never jumped in…and maybe never intended to.

Or that her me vs. we perspective was hurting her work, that of her subteam, and of the full assessment team, too.

She’d thought she’d been playing her part, fulfilling her role, by getting her name on the team roster immediately, always being on time to team meetings, and consistently warming a seat. But that was about all.

The “What would it take for you to use the word ‘we?’” question led to some other realizations and breakthroughs for her and the team.

Soon, with a bit of reworking and commitment to their shared goals and team process, the once-troubled team started to develop traction, positive action, and to produce steady, solid results.

They ultimately finished their work very effectively…as I knew they could and would, eventually.

The full assessment team’s work was very successful…beyond their expectations…and up to mine.

They had to do the work to discover that they could.

Taking sides within a team, and a me/I/mine frame of mind show that a “team” is not yet a team…until they are united and driven by a common purpose and vision, as well as clear goals and team process.

The adversary you’re up against is, after all, often not so much another group, or point of view.

The real adversary? It’s the great consequences you share if you don’t figure out how to work together well to meet your shared purpose and goals.

And in any case, the most effective solution, when there are differences of opinion, often resides somewhere between the extremes that the two “sides” advocate.

So…again…find we, not just me, I and mine.

Review or refine and recommit to your shared purpose and goals.

By the way, if you’re wrestling now with a we vs. me challenge, or with different sides staring each other down on a team that’s not actually a team yet, know that you’re not alone.